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interesting habitats and avifauna. Ten
field meetings were held in the year 1984-5
with attendances between one and twenty five
members, 10-15 being the norm. The Group
has had atrocious luck with the elements
with only 2 dates avoiding rain or snow, and
this, together with increased competition
from the many new regional National History
Societies springing up all over the county,
probably accounts for the low attendances
compared with five years ago.
The first meeting after the A.G.M. 1984 was
led by Ian Misselbrook and covered the
Roman River Valley Complex, Colchester, and
now seems to be the most reliable woodland
area to hear nightingales since this species
has abandoned its traditional haunts in the
Mill Green/Fryerning/Ingatestone area.
Other woodland meetings enabled us again to
familiarise ourselves with species more
frequently identified by sound rather than
sight, e.g. Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Common
and Lesser Whitethroat, Goldcrest, Treecreeper,
Coal Tit, Hawfinch, Nuthatch, the three Wood-
peckers, and so on.
For those members hardy enough to brave the
atrocious weather conditions of the 1984-5
Winter, the Group managed to track down many
of our lass common Winter migrants such as
Great Northern Diver, Red Throated Diver,
Red Necked and Slavonian Grebes, other
occasional sea duck, such as Scoter and Eider,
and Long-tailed Duck, the three Sawbills,
Smew, Goosander and Red-breasted Merganser,
the occasional wild Swan, Whooper and Bewicks
(Abberton and Old Hall) and rarer and more